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Things you enjoyed about XIII Trilogy

Thoraxes said:
They're just really fun games to play, and I've replayed each of them a few times over the years.

The final boss of LR is such an amazing fight that really tests whether or not you fully grasp the battle system and have leveled up yourself and your personal skills. It was more than just potion or healing spam, and really felt like you needed to be good at the game or you die.
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Yeah I loved that battle system...so good.

Andrefpvs said:
Things I enjoyed:

Final Fantasy XIII
  • The FF13 release date announcement video. That smug man made me believe that the date wouldn't be announced at that time, only for the screen to suddenly turn into the release date while Saber's Edge is playing. That got me really hyped.
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Music was by far my favorite part of the series. I think if you combine the trilogy it's my favorite video game music of all time.
Battle system was solid in all 3 games and I really enjoyed the time travel aspect of XIII-2.
Caius was a great villain as well.

I really hope they do a collection for PS4 bc I would love to play through them again
 
I love it all, though I haven't played LR yet.
Music, combat, art direction, and emotions are all spot on for me.
Vanille is so good. Also canon lgbt characters in a major game like this is super cool.
 
Astral said:
I enjoyed all of XIII-2 actually. The story was a little stupid with the whole "it must be a paradox" thing, but Noel was cool, Serah was surprisingly likable, making powerful monsters was fun, Caius was cool, the music was amazing, and I absolutely LOVED the ending. I thought it was pretty ballsy.
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Pretty much mirrors my feelings. XIII-2 managed to address most of the complaints from XIII - the world was open, the battle system (which was already good) was tightened up and was much quicker, the characters had more character, and the time jumping aspect was a lot of fun (and made the game much less linear).

Also Lightning was, frankly, badass.

I understand people's complaints about XIII but the negative reactions to it are a little dramatic, in my opinion. There was a lot to love in that trilogy.
 
i'm about halfway through XIII-2 and might not ever go back. I just can't stand Serah (Sarah?) whatever the fuck her name is. Lightning's dumbassed sister.

Things I liked about XIII:

Fang is the best.
Fun if somewhat whackamole style combat
Good music
Good FMV

Should I keep going with XIII-2? Is LR worth playing?
 
Iced said:
My mind went here after reading the title:

hhRNZ5z.jpg


And I thought, "They made three of those damn things?"
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I mean, they did do two different tv shows based off the property.

I ended up playing through most of it again a year or two ago and it really made me want an Archer first person shooter.
 
13: its take on FNC god. I REALLY liked that the "gods" were robots/machines powered by crystals. Music, graphics, battle system were very good too.

13-2: significantly lower production value but thanks to the battle system from 13, and their effort to make more stuff to do, it was a very fun mess.

LR: no...i hated this game.
 
13: Fang, graphics, soundtrack, most of everything after the first 20 hours
13-2: Noel and Caius, grown-up Hope, that Chocobo song, plus the game was fun and the story was better
LR: The cutscenes, soundtrack, and some parts of the combat system. But I hated that game with a passion.
 
XIII: One of the best OSTs in the franchise. It looks pretty (still). The battle system has its moments and a decent challenge.
XIII-2: Again, some good music (albeit not as consistent as XIII). An even better version of XIII's battle, sadly with gimped gameplay. While handled in a melodramatic way, I did like some of the character beats (especially Caius).
LR: Another good soundtrack. The battle system is a lot of fun, from what I played of the game (which isn't much).
 
The graphics were amazing for its time. Tbh I didn't get that far, I only played the first one and got stuck on the part where the black guy with the afro has to face his summon.
 
I enjoyed that in XIII I could go back to the Journal/Notes and figure out what's happened since the last time I played (months later); wish more of the mythos was explained outside of that area, though.
 
XIII has one of the best RPG combat systems out there to this day; easily my favorite in the Final Fantasy series. Add a gorgeous art design, fantastic soundtrack, and legitimately cool world building and lore (despite the story itself being less than great) and you've got a pretty damn good game. Yeah, it's not perfect and has it's flaws, no doubt, but XIII gets a pretty bad rap for as many things as it has going for it. XIII-2's story is somehow even worse, though, and while I loved the ending, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Never played Lightning Returns, so no comment on that one.

Edit: Here's some examples of the soundtrack, easily my favorite aspect of the game. Hamauzu is an excellent composer who deserves more love.

https://youtu.be/IfNJu0hd0GE?list=PL7C498688F14F6A0D

https://youtu.be/Th2jeYakyAY?list=PL7C498688F14F6A0D

https://youtu.be/MjrWjptj9Xc?list=PL7C498688F14F6A0D

https://youtu.be/5kkz6JwE3xE?list=PL7C498688F14F6A0D

https://youtu.be/lbbBmB8bQo8?list=PL7C498688F14F6A0D
 
Noel, Sazh. I thought XIII-2 was the better game. LR in my opinion was dreadful. I really didn't like it. The time limit was stupid, so was no party members.
 
I enjoy that's it's over. Blech. Forced myself to play through XIII and XIII-2. Still haven't touched lightning returns but I will force myself through that too.

It's a constant reminder of how shitty Square got. I think they're back on track so far.
 
XIII
-Graphics and art were pretty great
-Music was great
-Really well thought out and balanced battle system. I loved the creativity behind it and I liked that the difficulty curve was pretty perfect
-Character designs were largely pretty good
-I liked that the characters didn't just automatically get along, join the party and everything was hunky dory. They fought and had conflicts at first and I liked that.
-Fang and Sazh were legit great characters
-Cinematics and cutscenes were awesome
-Overall theme of the story was pretty great

XIII-2
-I liked Noel
-Caius was a pretty great villain
-The battle system was still good enough (would have been great if it kept the difficulty curve of the first game)
-I liked the time hopping
-Music was still pretty good

Lightning Returns
-Fun concept
-Cool twist on the battle system
-Yuel and Caius' return an execution was pretty cool
-Some good boss fights
 
I think the music is amazing. Probably my favorite FF soundtrack in game (ie the orchestration of, say, FF6's soundtrack is better).

The visuals are outstanding and incredibly consistent. FFXV looks fantastic a lot of the time but doesn't have the same level of visual polish and consistency that FF13 has. FF13 is one of the few games that I have zero issues going back to this gen even though it's 720p/30fps.

I also appreciate that every cutscene gets the full cinematic treatment. No quick zooms with horrible lip syncing like FFXV.

It really feels like SE spared no expense making it.

Also enjoyed the battle system.

Character designs are really good throughout pretty much the entire cast.

I think the voice acting is good. The script is awful but I feel like Ali HIllis, Troy Baker, and co were pretty much doing their best with poor material.

Never played FF13-2 and LR.
 
Xiii is one of my favorite games. Amazing production values even today and a great cohesive Hamazu score. Lore and world setting was fascinating to me but I disliked where they went in two sequels. Most of all it's the fast combat system that has me making split second decisions. A very balanced game too, and I really dug having level caps.

Xiii-2 and LR are sloppy games. They have some fun ideas but I don't think they have the same kind of love put into them as the original.
 
I didn't really like the games all that much. I beat the first one and quit somewhere into the second one. Staying on track though so things I liked (not comparing to previous ff games)

Battle Music
Battle system
It was on xbox
 
I loved XIII and XIII-2. The feel was just right, and they were a lot of fun. The combat systems were well implemented, the music was sensational, even if the story and characters werent the best in the series I still thought they were great FF games.
 
I only played XIII...and there's not much to like there...

However... The in-game menus are still to this day some of the most slick menu design ever featured in a game.

I'm trying really hard to find something else to say nice about the game, but I really can't.
 
Nothing really in terms of the first game. Dropped that game after 20 or so hours and that's probably my favorite part.

Even the little things that on paper would deserve praise like it's production come with the caveat that the art itself is nonsense, and that story isn't exactly something to get excited for. Maybe the music?
 
I almost like everything. Story, characters, lore, gameplay, music - among my favorite FFs ever, including XIII-2 and LR. If I could change something is the character development of Lightning after XIII, really not fitting her initial arch.
 
Battle systems. Each one really delivered for me. Great music too!

And I really liked the character design and mythology established in the original, though both of those went down fast in the sequels....
 
The games werent as bad as they were made out to be; each had some issues, but overall they were a fun experience.

XIII level design was lacking and some of the characters weren't spectacular, but the game had a reasonably fun battle system and great production value.

XIII-2 opened the world up more; you got to explore more and chart your own path a little more. It made some questionable decisions with preexisting characters and turned the storyline into nonsensical craziness, but it felt like an interesting enough sequel.

Lightning Returns might be the most unique, but perhaps the worst of the three games. The gameplay is somewhat improved, but the time-based structure of the game limits what you can do and makes you adhere to a strict path lest you have to replay the game again. It's an interesting mechanic that draws from games like Majora's Mask, but its incredibly more strict because it does not allow you do indulge in exploration or screw up. This coupled with the fact that you don't level up in a traditional manner and the game can be pretty frustrating. Lets say you start exploring an area you're under leveled for and you waste a day or two on it only to get demolished by the boss (God damn Caius for example). In any other game it wouldn't matter - you grind and beat the boss. But in LR since you're on a tight deadline you wasting those two days is detrimental to what you'll be able to do in the long run.

There's just so many quests in LR that you'll miss simply because you didn't know to be somewhere at some time,and for the most part, once those quests are gone they are gone for the entire rest of the game. A game that either requires you to use a guide or play a 30+ hour game multiple times isn't great. Just bad design that punishes you for not knowing. Overall it was an interesting concept that was just poorly implemented.

Edit: Also yeah, LR completely destroys the character of Lightning. She's literally a soulless husk in the game.
 
I loved XIII. Everything about it. It even has the best Final Fantasy song of all time, Blinded by Light. Unfortunately, the Pokemon thing in XIII-2 was too much bullshit for me that I couldn't even play it for more than a few hours. As I don't play sequels without playing the predecessor games, I don't even know how Lightning Returns is. But by what I remember being talked about when it came out, I wouldn't like it too
 
I can agree with a lot of you in saying that LR is the weakest story wise but may have the best combat system out of the 3. After almost completely throwing out XIII-2's ending, Lightning Returns was a trainwreck narratively speaking.
 
Andrefpvs said:
Then Lightning Returns comes and basically undoes everything that was great about Caius and XIII-2's ending just so we can have more Lightning. Oh well. At least we got that.
[/list]
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Care to explain what you mean? LR is a direct result of Caius tricking Noel and Serah and getting exactly everything that he wanted. His final scene in LR is perfect.
 
Sazh and Fang were great characters. Graphics were great, music was pretty good.

(Never played XIII-2 or LR)
 
Caius and Noel were great. Yeul, not so much, but I appreciated that they in essence gave us Etro's (and by extention Mwynn's) appearance.
Yeul was made in Etros image, who in turn was made from Bhunivelse's mother Mwynn.
The lore behind the series was interesting, it's a pity the stories and most characters weren't.
 
RMI said:
i'm about halfway through XIII-2 and might not ever go back. I just can't stand Serah (Sarah?) whatever the fuck her name is. Lightning's dumbassed sister.

Things I liked about XIII:

Fang is the best.
Fun if somewhat whackamole style combat
Good music
Good FMV

Should I keep going with XIII-2? Is LR worth playing?
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If you like Fang, she plays a nice role toward the end of XIII-2 and she's a badass in LR.
 
The music and graphic are gorgeous, the main characters doesn't wear ultra weird outfits, and the combat is great once you pass the easy part (which sadly is 90% of the game)
 
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